French museum directors: Changing activities and managerial practices

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, museums have undergone profound changes. The decline in public funding has forced them to develop their resources in order to diversify their cultural offering for national and international visitors. Museographic projects have thus multiplied public or private partnerships in a competitive environment. These changes raise questions about the profession of museum directors within the museum institution and in heritage governance more broadly. How do managers cope with the managerial challenges of institutional change? An ethnographic survey of five major French museums, supplemented by documentary materials (professional journals, press conferences) offering an international comparison, reveals that their scientific function is evolving toward managerial affirmation, faced with audiences’ ever less homogeneous educational and social expectations.